Over the river and into the snow...

We woke up early the day after Christmas to drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Alpine Utah. 12 hours later we arrived...

This is the view standing on my parent's back porch... one of my favorite, most peaceful places to sit and just be...

It wasn't long before our kids wanted to be in the snow... so the long process of putting on snow clothes begins...20 minutes later Royce is ready to play in the snow and dad is beat....This is Lucy. She is almost 3 yrs old and she is one of the funnest little gals you could ever know...I took Lucy and Royce out to build a snow man or rather rebuild the snow man that Dan helped them build a few days ago...Sooo much fun and sooo cute!It wasn't long before Jad was out pushing a sled twice his size up one of the hills in the backyard...It took him 10 minutes to push his sled to the top...and 1 second to sled down...Uncle Johnny to the rescue...Much more fun with Johnny's help.Royce liked to eat the snow...Jad liked just being in the snow.Sydney and Ashlee - two little snow angels. The other kids decided to change the snowman around a little...Then inside for some hot cocoa...A ping-pong tournament is a must whenever the guys get together...Some controlled chaos in the gym... I don't know what we would do without the gym; this is where the kids can let out all their energy and it keeps some sanity throughout the rest of the home. Byron and Myla play a game of shuffle board.BOWLING... yeah, baby!

Sydney, Ashlee, and Natalee wearing their fancy bowling shoes...

All the little girly cousins...We tried getting the same type of picture with all the boy cousins... no sign of Nate anywhere, Ryan and Jason where sleeping, Royce just would not cooperate. Needless to say, it didn't work out. On a positive note...we found a perfect time-out spot for Royce.SLEDDING AT SOLDIER HOLLOW... Jad and Royce didn't leave these tubes until we were done sledding for the day... There was relief for the rest of us though...once our tube was attached to the rope pull we sat back and relaxed while it pulled us up the hill... Royce hung in there till the end... Jad went back to the lodge a little early due to some frozen little toes or maybe he just wanted to sit by the fire and sip on a gatorade... Everyone joined soon after to warm up...Ashlee and Sydney were inseparable throughout the entire trip.Uncle Matt puttin' out the vibe...All tuckered out. That was a fun day!NEW YEARS EVE... some fireworks for the kiddos... All the grand kids except for one... We miss you Liam!!!A cousins slumber party at Grandma's... A few of the little ones made it back to the comfort of their parents room in the middle of the night. At some point I ended up sleeping down here next to Jad. I guess he was a little scared but still wanted to be down with all the "big" kids... Oh, my aching back. NEW YEARS MORNING... John had a brilliant idea to pull the kids around on a tube behind the 4 wheeler. Caleb was recruited to make some jumps... Matt tested the track out on his snow board...He even caught a little air...Soon all the kids where dressed in their snow attire waiting for a ride on the tube...They had great fun!Jad couldn't get enough... Some of the girly girls stayed inside to make pretty paper covered notebooks with Grandma and Aunt Emily.One of the highlights of the trip for me was to be reunited with one of my very best friends, Kim (Dickerson) Taylor. I attribute staying out of too much trouble growing up to the good friends that I had. We were inseparable in our younger years. I hadn't seen Kim for probably 10 years before this trip. We got together with our families and it was so much fun to see our husbands and children interact with each other...Little did we know that we each had a 7 year old little girl, Ashlee and Paige, who seemed to hit it off automatically. I have wanted to get in touch with her for so long but was afraid of what to say... there is so much joy in finding an old friend and welcoming them into your life again! Ok, I cringed about 8 times while going through old pictures to find one of me, Kim, and Katie together... man, I wish someone had introduced me to a set of tweezers about 10 years prior to High School...whew, I have some pictures that just need to be burned! This is us in High School - we were quite the catch... hahaha! Sometimes I really miss the good ol' days.